October 8, 2026
WHEN: Today, Thursday, October 8, 2026
WHERE: CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and “Squawk on the Street”
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC exclusive interview with Skydance Chairman & CEO David Ellison and Skydance Co-CEO Ynon Kreiz for their first sit-down interview since the close of Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and the formation of Skydance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” (M-F, 6AM-9AM ET) and “Squawk on the Street” (M-F, 9AM-12PM ET) today, Thursday, October 8. Following are links to video on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/10/08/skydance-ceo-david-ellison-we-can-compete-with-anybody-coming-out-of-silicon-valley.html and https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/10/08/skydance-ceo-david-ellison-ai-is-going-to-transform-every-part-of-the-business.html.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
DAVID FABER: Becky, thank you. Thanks to the whole “Squawk” team, of course. We're going to run into your show for the rest of it, at least. And I'm very happy, obviously, to be joined by David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz. You're going to be ringing the bell about 50 minutes from now or so. It's been quite a journey, David. I followed it very closely, of course, as you know. And, you know, you started the bidding for Warner at $18 a share. You ended at 31. When you include what you had to pay Netflix for their break fee, it was an increase of as much as $47 billion from your initial bid. Why is it worth it?
DAVID ELLISON: Well, first, David, I don't know what you're talking about in terms of the journey here. It was smooth and easy. And, no, it truly is. Walking in here today was quite remarkable because I remember the last time we were here was when we launched the hostile on your show. So to be coming full circle today—
FABER: Yeah.
ELLISON: Is really quite remarkable. And look, the reason why we went through everything that we did is because with the combination and the completion of this transaction, we are positioned to win in every single vertical that we operate in. By combining Paramount and Warner Bros., we have the greatest content engine with marquee intellectual property. You're uniting “Lord of the Rings”, “Harry Potter”, the DC universe under the same house as “Mission Impossible”, “Top Gun: Maverick”, “G.I. Joe”, “Transformers,” you're immediately getting to scale on streaming. Between HBO Max and Paramount Plus, over 200 million global streaming subscribers, with, with an addition to Pluto, 80 million monthly active users. We have an unmatched sports portfolio that includes the NFL, MLB, NHL, UEFA, basically, PGA, just to name a few. Not to mention the Olympics internationally. And an incredibly profitable linear portfolio anchored by CBS. When you look at our primetime lineup, the NCIS night just launched 42 percent up basically from last year, five of the top 10 cable channels. And we will transform this business.
FABER: Well, what, let me start there then, because, you know, you start as well, though. I mentioned the 47 billion additionally. Nobody thought you were going to get it for 18, but—
ELLISON: Yeah.
FABER: I bet you didn't think it was going to cost you 31 either when you started. So, you know, $79 billion in debt. You're almost seven times leverage. You have a target, though, of getting down to three times leverage, let's call it, three and a half years from now. You talk about transformation. You've got to deliver on that. What gives you the confidence you can do it and get to that three times leverage from where you are right now?
ELLISON: Absolutely. So, let's talk about the debt and the path to delevering. There's, there's multiple avenues to delever. One is to, to grow the business. We're going to be investing more in content than any of our peers. We're projecting, you know, mid-single digits, basically, you know, top line revenue growth on a company that's already producing close to $70 billion of revenue. We have $6 billion of synergies in the deal. And let’s just look at what we did at Paramount. When we were sitting here actually day one on your show at Paramount, we announced $2 billion of synergies.
FABER: I remember.
ELLISON: We are going to overperform that by 50 percent. We're going to complete 2.7 billion by the end of this year. And so, when you look at, and then we're also going to be going from $4 billion in cash flow next year when you remove transaction costs to 10 billion by 2030. So, we are absolutely in a position to where we can grow the business and delever simultaneously and create a tremendous amount of value for all stakeholders.
FABER: You do, I mean, but you've got to invest as well. You mentioned the $4 billion in cash you've got I think it's $6 billion in interest costs going out a year. You've also got $800 million for a dividend. By the way, why have a dividend? Why bother given the constraints you're under?
ELLISON: It's good for shareholders. And again, when you look at the free cash flow conversion of this company, we can absolutely delever the business to three times in three years and invest more in content than any of our peers to be able to grow and scale this company.
FABER: Absolute -- again, I come back to it. What gives you that confidence when you say absolutely? Why? What are you seeing that you know, many, people are even rooting for you say, well, it's going to be a hard road.
ELLISON: Let's look at the overall platform that we're operating right now. Twelve percent of all television watch time, that is second only to YouTube. So we have the scale, we have the intellectual property, we have the plan, and we have the people to be able to execute. And very thankfully, I'm sitting here with an incredible partner, and I believe the two of us are completely capable of the task at hand.
FABER: Why did you hire Ynon?
ELLISON: So I've known Ynon for seven years. I think he is an incredible operator. He's a visionary leader. There is, candidly, nobody in the world I would rather do this with. And I believe that as a team, we are going to, we are incredibly strong. But actually, Ynon, I'll let you answer that—
FABER: Well, you know what, what, Ynon, I'd love to come to you in terms of just the synergy opportunity is key here. It does appear that is going to be one of your focuses day one. I guess I'll ask the question, what is your focus day one, when you look at having to deliver on those cost synergies that are so important to making this deal work?
YNON KREIZ: Well, let me start by saying that I could not be more excited to be sitting here and partner with an entrepreneur like David, and everything that he's accomplished today is nothing but inspiration. We have a unique opportunity to build the next generation media and entertainment global company that is powered by creativity and technology. We have the assets that David mentioned. We have the capability, we have the people. And all of this is happening at the point in time when the industry is at an inflection point, where it's getting harder and harder to reach the consumer and aggregate fans, we have what it takes, we have what it takes. And while everybody is focused on synergy and debt, don't forget this is a growth story. It’s a growth story.
FABER: Okay. Well, a lot of people don't think it's a growth story. When you say we have what it takes. I'm trying to understand what, I know the collection of assets is unparalleled in many ways, but what does that mean?
KREIZ: So we have, we have a multi-year plan. Let's start with the synergy. We're looking to reduce our, generate synergies of more than $6 billion over the next three years. This will come from technology, marketing consolidation, real estate optimization, and some labor. Although labor is not the majority of the savings, those synergies will take our EBITDA from $12 billion pro forma for next year, up obviously, by at least that amount. And in addition, we're looking to grow the business at mid-single digit growth CAGR for the next three years by 2030.
FABER: Right.
KREIZ: With that, looking at our plan, we see a clear path to grow the business and achieve the profitability—
FABER: To get to $10 billion in free cash flow I guess by 2030.
KREIZ: That is a goal, and that will bring us to three times leverage ratio and be investment—
FABER: That will be success. There's no doubt if you guys are able to do that. Ynon, you know, I look back you joined, I think Mattel as CEO in April of 2018. And not too many months later, you got rid of 25 percent of the non-manufacturing jobs at the company. Is a similar type of approach needed here?
KREIZ: Well, there's no question that we are already in full execution mode. We have a plan. This is my third day on the job, but we're already deep into it. We have an incredible team. We have multiple work streams. We have a clear vision and line of sight to achieve the savings we're aiming towards.
FABER: Where do you start?
KREIZ: It's, it's a whole concept of opportunities. And you know, while when we talk about synergies, it's important also to say this is not about cost reduction, this is about re-engineering how we work. This is about reinventing the business model. So it's not just synergies in reducing costs. It's also improving how we perform. And we're looking to build a high performing company, leveraging technology, leveraging capabilities, and build something that will stand out for years to come. And this is a long-term plan. This is not about a few days of share trading or, you know, or even managing synergies for three years. We're building a company for future generations, and we have an opportunity to stand out in a crowded market.
FABER: But reducing the workforce is a part of that.
KREIZ: Yes. And we said that. We were public about it. But—
FABER: Yeah.
KREIZ: When it comes to, to making those decisions, of course, we're thinking of our people. We're going to do it in the right way, respectfully, transparently, and communicate our plans. This will be part of the plan. This is part of the plan, will be part of the process.
FABER: How do you divide the labor here? What is your view? I mean, I asked you why you hired him—
ELLISON: Yeah.
FABER: But now what? You know, is there, do you have a clear idea of how you delineate sort of responsibility?
ELLISON: So, so, we absolutely have clear lines of delineation. First I want to say is we're going to do everything as true partners. And really sitting here today, this caps a three-year journey. We were talking about buying Warner Bros. Discovery before we actually closed on Paramount, because we believe this gave us the scale and put us in a position to be able to win. So this has been a long-term strategic vision and strategy that I've had for three years. I'll continue to lead in strategy, creativity, technology. You know, Ynon will obviously focus on day-to-day operations and overall of the company. But we'll do everything in partnership. And again, there's nobody else to do this with.
FABER: Right. David, you know, one of the key gating issues for Warner Bros. Discovery and for many other companies that have cable networks has been the continued decline of the cable ecosystem and free to air as well. That continues. And, you know, you can create synergies and get cost savings and create more cash flow, but then you're dealing with this decline on the other side. How do you see that playing out?
ELLISON: So, look, I think we as Ynon said, this is a growth story. When you put the two streaming services together, we do get to a world where the studios and streaming business outpaces linear declines, and obviously, the company grows and creates long term value over time. But we're also bullish on the linear business. Again, like let's look at the last year of owning CBS. It is the Tiffany Network, the number one broadcast network for over 17 years. It's number one primetime lineup. We delivered a record setting NFL season last year. And the linear businesses are separate, right? Broadcast is incredibly stable. Yes, cable is declining, but it is still high margin, highly cash flow generative. By putting these companies together, we can keep that business longer over time and make sure that we transition into a predominantly studios and streaming business and deliver long term value for shareholders.
FABER: Do you have a view on sort of where, I mean, we all wonder, when are we going to hit the bottom? Is it 50 million subs? Is it, when is it?
ELLISON: The answer is you're already seeing actually the decline start to asymptote. So you’re—
FABER: You think so?
ELLISON: You're already, you're already seeing it happen now. And again, let's just go back to what just happened two days ago on CBS, where viewership in prime time is up 42 percent year to date. So, I do think you're seeing that starting to slow. And when you contrast it to kind of the Warner Bros. Discovery, the linear declines were not well understood at that moment in time. I think they are incredibly well understood now. We've been very conservative about what we're projecting in our model. And I think as a result of that, we'll be able to over deliver for shareholders.
KREIZ: You know that David, just on you, this is an important point.
FABER: Please.
KREIZ: When you look at our linear TV portfolio, it's anchored by CBS, the crown jewel of broadcast television. And then we have 50 channels, 50 cable networks, including seven of the top 10 in the key demo of 18 to 49. And that allows us to reach audiences all over the world, across every entertainment vertical. And as David said, the way we manage this portfolio is for the long term. So we believe we can still optimize profitability. Yes, there will be top line decline.
FABER: There will be declines, though.
KREIZ: There will be—
FABER: I've been a part of this world for, for 30-something years now.
KREIZ: There will be.
FABER: And, you know, unfortunately, it went like this. And now, we're going like this.
ELLISON: So can we, can we step back actually?
FABER: Of course.
ELLISON: Let's look back at how we got here 10 years ago. Tech came into media and fundamentally disrupted the business.
FABER: Yes.
ELLISON: Companies didn't pivot fast enough. We can talk a lot about the owner, operator entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley versus the more steward culture of Hollywood that candidly put the businesses in this position. This transaction is the solution to those mistakes 10 years ago. Big tech took platform technology, pushed into media. What we're doing, but people are still there for the content. They're there for the stories. They're there for the news they love, the sports they love, the stories they love. We have assembled an unmatched portfolio of intellectual property, sports and news assets, and then we were building the product and tech organization that can compete with anybody coming out of Silicon Valley. That is going to enable us to push back. And when you look at the late delay to pivot—
FABER: Yes.
ELLISON: This accelerates streaming growth by years as a standalone company. And you get to that inflection point very, very quickly to where the growth businesses of studios and streaming—
FABER: And—
ELLISON: No, but outpace linear decline.
FABER: I get it, I -- and that, I want to, let's focus on that—
ELLISON: Yeah.
FABER: -- because that is the key. If you're going to succeed, it's got to be the DTC portfolio. It's got to be the international platform, right, as well.
ELLISON: Absolutely. And if you look -- if you look at that, we have incredible room to run here in the States, domestically. These services are still nascent internationally. So we have a tremendous amount of room to grow in the international business. Our fast business is growing rapidly, both in terms of engagement and market share. And then in addition to that, we are investing more in content than any of our peers. Like, just talk about the scale of it, 30 movies a year, over 180 series, CNN news assets, CBS news assets, unmatched sports portfolio, plus the product and tech layer. We are positioned to compete with anybody and to win by putting these companies together.
FABER: Ynon, you—
KREIZ: And I would not – sorry, for this on this point.
FABER: Yes.
KREIZ: Where we stand out is not just with the incredible assets that we own in terms of content, but the ability to generate original content and find the next big hit. This is something that David has done consistently, consistently with Skydance.
FABER: Well, it comes back to creativity, right?
KREIZ: Exactly. So we're looking to win in content. This is the, this is the main tenet of the strategy, win in content.
FABER: Right.
KREIZ: And if we do that.
FABER: You got hit shows. People are going to come to the platform.
KREIZ: And this is something that no one does. You know, there are other platforms, other DTC platforms, other cable networks, other broadcast networks.
FABER: Okay. But I want to understand what the real goal is, though, in terms of, all right, you know, Netflix is out there. Do you see yourself becoming a number two? And, you know, you've said you're, and this is a quote, unifying under a single service over time in terms of Paramount Plus and HBO Max. What does that mean? How quickly does it happen? What comes first?
ELLISON: No, no. So, so the answer is it's already happening. You know, we literally announced yesterday that we're unifying ad sales across the platforms. The product and tech teams are literally already at work unifying the back end tech stacks. We actually just completed that for the three services at Paramount a month ago. When you look at Agentic tooling and what you can now do with Claude and Codex, we can bring those back ends together significantly faster.
FABER: Do you think so? Because, I mean, I hear that from others who tried to do it. It takes time, they say.
ELLISON: You know—
FABER: Disney and everything else, do you think you can do it faster?
ELLISON: The answer is we know. So, and I will say, when you look at, legacy media companies have traditionally had IT organizations, not product and tech teams. We are building a true product and tech team. We've been doing it within a year with, within Paramount. When you look at Dane Glasgow, who runs that business for us, prior to joining us, he was running Facebook for Meta and, you know, has over 20 years basically working with the best technology companies in the world. We have that team in house. And what you are seeing, on average, by deploying these A.I. tools across the company is on average, a 50 percent acceleration in terms of how fast you can get things done. For the high performers in the company, they are 10x-ing what they used to be able to do before. And when you talk about our synergy numbers, we're not applying A.I. to any of that. So when you look at how A.I. is going to transform every part of the business, we are really well-positioned.
FABER: But it's not going to transform movies. These 30 movies are not going to be A.I.-generated.
ELLISON: So what I would say is, look, we are a big believer that artificial intelligence is a tool for artists, not the other way around. And I don't think anything will disrupt that. What I do think is going to be possible when you talk about storytelling and artificial intelligence, I do believe it will be one of the biggest unlocks for creativity. For example, 1983, James Cameron made the first “Terminator” movie, $4 million. That movie, shot for shot today, $60 million or $70 million. How many first-time directors with an original script and no movie star, completely unproven, get a $60 million, $70 million budget? If you can use those toolings to be able to have -- to be able to have that movie cost $20 million today, it will be a massive unlock for the creative community.
FABER: But you need it. I mean, 30 movies is not going to be cheap. And sometimes, they don't work. And so you're taking a loss on them.
ELLISON: But we're doing it today. I mean, like that's just actually look at what's accomplished. Paramount in the first year of ownership, we went from eight to 15 movies.
FABER: Yeah.
ELLISON: Warner Bros. is over 15 movies on the calendar. So we literally have 34 movies dated for next year. We can absolutely handle that volume. It's baked into the business plan and it positions us incredibly well. And you talk about streaming. What is 30 movies mean for streaming? It means every 11 days, a movie with a theatrical release window and a theatrical print and advertising campaign debuts on service.
FABER: That's a lot.
ELLISON: It's incredibly powerful.
FABER: Yeah.
ELLISON: That -- that leads to engagement, subscriber acquisition.
FABER: Yeah. You know, the TV side of your business, the production side of Warner Bros. is pretty significant, too. They sell important shows to a lot of streamers. Are you going to keep doing that? Do you have an opportunity to raise price, or do you eventually bring it all in house?
ELLISON: So we're going to increase production both for our own services. So basically the -- you know, we think first and foremost about the consumer and we want to make sure that we are offering the best storytelling in the world on our platforms. And you're going to see us increase production for what is going to be available on our streaming service and linear networks and in the theater. In addition to that, we will absolutely continue to sell to third parties. And again, when you look at the overall television portfolio across the three studios, it's over 180 shows a year, more than any, more than any other company in the world.
FABER: Right. You did lose Taylor Sheridan to NBC. Was that a blow? How do you view that in terms of what that's going to mean, given how important he has been, at least to the success of Paramount Plus?
ELLISON: So I have so much admiration and respect for Taylor. He's still under contract with us until 2029. We actually have nine series that we're making together between now and the end of his contract. If you haven't seen “Lioness” season three, it's truly spectacular. We have a great relationship. He's literally writing “Call of Duty” for us with Pete Berg as we speak. And we also just greenlit another movie of his. And all of that intellectual property, we own and it stays at the company. So we're going to have a long relationship with Taylor—
FABER: And does Paramount's content, I mean, HBO Max’s content, I'm just curious as to how you see that all mixing and matching, so to speak, in terms of on one service for the end customer and what they want.
ELLISON: So, one of the things that is actually fantastic is the two services are highly complementary. It's actually the lowest overlap over any of the services. And we want to be a service that actually speaks to everyone.
FABER: The lowest overlap in terms of subscriber base?
ELLISON: Correct. So, the overlap is a lot less than people think. And it puts us in a position to be able to talk to every audience. We want to be something for everybody. And we, you know, we want to be the, the number one destination for the most talented artists and filmmakers in the world. And we believe we're in a position to deliver a market leading service.
FABER: I want to talk a bit of news here. Obviously, you now have CNN and CBS. You merge the newsgathering operations, is that fair to assume? I mean, there's got to be some cost savings there, right?
KREIZ: Well, this isn't about cost savings in this case. We look to keep the businesses run in parallel with independent editorial operation. This is really important. And two separate businesses, and we're so fortunate to have such successful, well-established, highly recognized brands in news.
FABER: Yeah, but newsgathering, though, why have them both do the same thing? Can't you just do it once?
ELLISON: There are absolutely operational efficiencies. And I'll say the operational efficiencies, we've looked at this deal for over a year. We know where every single dollar is. Again, I'll point to our track record at Paramount. And look, when you, when you are the largest shareholder in the business, you are completely focused on, how do we create long-term value for all of our shareholders. And so, from that standpoint, we are 100 percent confident in the $6 billion synergy number that we've outlined. Again, our track record is over-delivering quite significantly. We know where those are. We’re actually—
FABER: Even with all the, you mentioned some of the things you have to invest in, though. I mean, marketing is going to be required for the new, for the combination of the DTC platform, all of those movies. You feel confident you can deliver on all of that?
KREIZ: This is all part of the plan. We have a multi-year plan. And as we've said, we expect to grow over the period at mid-single digit CAGR through 2030 and achieve profitable growth, increasing our EBITDA margin to mid, to the 20, mid 20s—
FABER: Right.
KREIZ: And generate a $10 billion cash flow, free cash flow that we talked about.
FABER: Just—
KREIZ: This is all part of the plan.
FABER: Go ahead, David. Sorry.
ELLISON: One thing I just want to add because I couldn't agree more. And again, I would point to what we did at Paramount, right? Even when you look at the synergies that we executed, we increased our investment in content. We doubled the film slate from eight to 16 films. We greenlit 40 new and returning series. We invested in more sports rights while operating the business more efficiently. We're going to do the exact same thing here. It is all detailed out. And now we get to do, we get to go execute on it.
FABER: Now you get to, right? Now you get to show us. So, you mentioned sports right, in the brief time I have left. The NFL, the change in control provision when you bought Paramount, was that exercise, does it mean you're going to have to renegotiate with them sooner than you might have otherwise?
ELLISON: So we have a great relationship with the NFL. I think one of the things that, you know, the NFL was actually an investor in Skydance and now an investor, well, now today and also, Skydance. So we delivered last year a record setting season with them. We anticipate being in business with the NFL for the foreseeable future. And based on all the conversations with Roger, I think he sees it the same way.
FABER: And CNN's future, you know, was the subject, it would seem, of so much, so many column mentions, certainly, David. You kept Mark Thompson. Why?
ELLISON: He's done a phenomenal job. And we also, given everything everyone's been through, we want stability. We believe in editorial independence across the news organizations. We think CNN is a remarkable brand. We think CBS News is a remarkable brand. When you put these two businesses together, it's a, it’s a—
FABER: CBS News under Bari Weiss has changed its approach to a certain extent. Do you expect similar moves from CNN?
ELLISON: Right now, I'd say, you have to talk to Mark. Corporate stays out of editorial. So again, I would say that's a, that's a conversation for Mark. It's a conversation for Bari, but we're going to support them.
FABER: All right. I'm looking forward to future conversations with both of you. When we sit down a year from now, what are we going to be talking about in terms of your ability to deliver on these synergies you're talking about, you've talked about so much and on the growth that you're talking about?
ELLISON: So I'll start and then—
FABER: Should I hold you to?
ELLISON: About performance, both economically and strategically. I'll start with strategic. We need to grow top line by mid-single digits. We need to grow, we need to put our streaming businesses together. We need to grow and scale our studio business, our DTC business. We need to execute on our platform and technological transformation at the company. And I believe we do all of that. We'll be in really good shape. I pass it over to Ynon to talk about performance.
KREIZ: You see us progressing towards our targets on 2030. And specifically when it comes to synergies, we expect to achieve a third of our synergy target in the first year. There's more to come. This is not just about synergies. You will see the company start performing at a very high level. You will see great content, you will see engagement, you will see excitement for fans all over the world, and the company is positioned to win.
FABER: I feel like, if I'm there, I feel like I'm happy to see him. I'm not so sure I'm happy to see you, Ynon, coming down the hall.
ELLISON: No, no, that’s—
KREIZ: We're in it—
FABER: Is that not right?
ELLISON: We’re in it together.
KREIZ: We're in it together.
FABER: Yeah.
KREIZ: And remember, this is a growth story. It's easy to focus on synergies. But ultimately, this is about growth. This is about creating long-term shareholder value. And we could not be better positioned to achieve that.
FABER: And so, right, the last two days has not done that. Of course, the stock price, I mean, it's only two days. But—
ELLISON: But, again, we don't control basically the first few days of trading. What we do control is the long term future of this business. And we're going to deliver. We're going to create value for all stakeholders. And we could not be more excited to get to work.
FABER: Guys, thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time. David Ellison, of course, chairman and CEO of Skydance, and Ynon Kreiz, the co-CEO, thank you both. Good luck ringing the bell.
ELLISON: Thank you.
FABER: I'm, make sure you do it 50 seconds, hit that button and don't, don't let off on it, okay?
ELLISON: Yeah, yeah.
FABER: All right. Actually, it's our show right now. I'm going to send it back over to Carl and Jim, who are standing right over there, sitting right over there.
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